Alito troubled by concerns about court's Catholics

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is voicing frustration over what he calls persistent questions about the court's Roman Catholic majority.

Alito aired his concerns in a speech Tuesday to an Italian-American law group in Philadelphia. He said respectable people in serious publications have questioned whether the Catholic-raised judges could be trusted to do their jobs. He said he thought the Constitution settled the question long ago with its guarantee of religious freedom.

Alito is one of six justices on the nine-member court who were raised Catholic, including new Justice Sonia Sotomayor. A dozen of the 111 jurists in the court's history have been Catholic.

• Link